Sixteen places in the World Series main draws
were up for grabs
today with sixteen qualifying finals on four courts this
afternoon at Hong Kong Football Club.

The men's matches started with a big upset as Germany's
Raphael Kandra beat top seeded Swiss Nicolas Mueller in four
games, and ended with another as Scotland's Greg Lobban
beat second seeded home favourite Yip Tsz Fung, also in four
games.

Third
seed Nafiizwan Adnan survived a scare as he edged past
Finnish veteran Olli Tuominen 12-10 in the fifth, while English
trio Tom Richards, Declan James and Adrian
Waller also made it through.

Lucas Serme ended the run of Spain's Iker Pajares to join
big sister Camille in the main draw, while in form Indian
Harinderpal Sandhu qualified with second seeding upset as he
beat Youssef Soliman in straight games.

Only
one of the top four seeds in the main draw face a qualifier, and
if Tom Richards got lucky today as his opponent Mohamed Reda
retired injured before the match, he drew the short straw (he
pulled it out himself!) and now faces the in-form Ali Farag.

The women's top two qualifying seeds had already been beaten
yesterday, but Lee Ka Yi and Vanessa Chu couldn't repeat those
upsets as they lost out to Rachael Arnold - who saved two
match balls in the fifth - and Tong Tsz Wing, who became
the only Hong Kong player to qualify out of the 25 starters.

Another
big upset saw Danielle Letourneau beat third seed Jenny
Duncalf in straight games, and she's joined in the main draw by
fellow Canadian Hollie Naughton who needed five game to
see off the challenge of Haley Mendez.

Milou van der Heijden won a second successive five-setter
as she came from one-two down to beat Misaki Kobayashi, and the
eight qualifiers are rounded off by the Egyptian trio of
Hania El Hammamy, Nada Abbas and Nadine Shahin.

In the main draw, Tong got the one she didn't want in compatriot
Annie Au, Letourneau faces ten-time champion Nicol David, Abbas
meets top seeded compatriot Nour El Sherbini and Hammamy faces
Laura Massaro in a repeat of their first round nailbiter of last
year.

12-Nov, Day ONE:
Hong Kong's Lee and Chu take out women's top seeds as Sandhu and
Pajares impress in the men's ...

Qualifying for the 2017 Hong Kong Squash Open, the third PSA
World Series event of the season, began at Hong Kong Football
Club with 32 round one Men's and Women's matches.

The
day started with a big upset in the women's draw as top
qualifying seed Nele Gilis was beaten in five games by an
inspired performance from Hong Kong's Lee Ka Yi,
prompting HK National Coach Chris Robertson, who had 24 players
under his watch today, to simply comment "Wow!".

The rest of the matches went to seeding with just one more home
winner - although teenager Chan Sin Yuk stretched USA's Haley
Mendez to five games - until the last match of the day when
second seeded Egyptian Mayar Hany was also beaten by a home
player, Vanessa Chu coming through in four games.

In the men's draw just one local - out of twelve starters -
progressed, second seeded Tsz Fung Yip beating compatriot
Henry Leung to advance his hopes of progress in a tournament
he's excelled in in recent years.

Here
too there were two big upsets, as India's Harinderpal Sandhu
took a , as 30-minute first game before finishing off
fourth-seeded Egyptian Karim Ali Fathi in straight games, and
Spain's Iker Pajares took out fifth seeded Englishman
Chris Simpson in four games and 80 minutes, having had match
ball for a straight games win.

There were some notable marathons as Egyptian youngster
Youssef Soliman and Finnish veteran Olli Tuominen
both won in five games lasting over 70 minutes.